Dissociative Identity Disorder in children
It is natural for children to dissociate before the age of 5 so spotting Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) in children is difficult. Most adults diagnosed with DID began splitting around age 4-6 with others as young as 2 and as old as 10 when they first begin splitting and developing alters.
Some personality disorders have been found to predispose toward dissociative disorders, including Avoidant (76%), Self Defeating (Masochistic) (68%) and Schizotypal (58%) personality disorders with Borderline (53%) and Passive-Aggressive (45%) having lesser, but still significant co-occurrence. Dissociative disorders, including DID, can occur in those of any gender, race, sexual orientation, and in those with and without other disabilities including developmental disabilities. There are a number of adults diagnosed with both autism and DID.
I was diagnosed with (Dissociative Identity Disorder) DID in 2010 in addition to my autism. I made this slide show from stills from video footage from when I was 12 years old in 1976. The footage was so fast you get more time to watch it this way. I made it as part of my own struggles in coming to terms with DID. There’s no sound to it as it’s only 46 secs and I didn’t want to add distractions. The original footage doesn’t have audio.
Of my 9 human alters, Da is feisty and comedic, Carol is friendly but off in her own world, Marnie is confrontational, defensive and Willie is aloof, detached, takes charge during chaos and tends to exit. Looks like Da starts the clip with awareness of her actions, there’s a switch to Carol at slide 3 as if she has no idea what she’s been in the middle of, then a sudden switch back to Da in slide 5 fully back on track, at slide 9 there’s a transition as if Da is momentarily offline, then at slide 10 there’s a sudden swipe at the camera by Marnie who looks as if the camera is invading her (probably not aware Da has strode up to the camera) and Marnie is there until the end but someone more aloof exits (possibly Willie).
In a second slide showit appears Willie was picking grass, being solitary. We’ve been interrupted, Willie appears displeased. “He” (for Willie identified as male since age 2) gives a ‘back off’ look then we return to picking grass. Aware the camera is still watching, we sneak a peek. At that point we switch to Carol who gives a compliant ‘pleaser’ smile, the we switch to comedic Da who gives a ‘come on you guys, gimme a break’ pressed smile then Anne, one of our shyest appears to be there, unable to look. Someone looks back, still finding us watched by the camera. Our protector, Willie, gets up and strides away.
Switching is not at all always this fast, possibly why those with DID seem simply to be different people on different days, weeks, sometimes hours. But switching can happen in seconds as several alters compete for which is going to present in the body. Each will have a different take on what they’ve found themselves in. When switching is this fast this is probably why nobody has any sense of being there that day… because there was no continuous sense of time for any one of the alters. We all remember the trousers and the jacket but no memory at all of the day.
You can also find more info at my website http://www.donnawilliams.netincluding my consultation page for DID where I offer online Peer Support.
Donna Williams, BA Hons, Dip Ed.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.
http://www.myspace.com/nobodynowherethefilm
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com
What does Da Boy like to do?
Da is featured in this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aly5E8wGSY
I see from your site that most of your team emerged in your teens but two in late childhood. How is it you were not dx’d with DID? What dx do you have?
I have Aspberger’s Syndrone. Sorry it took so long to get back to you. It’s not DID. Sorry if I confused you.
I work with a six year old boy who told us today at work that there are 5 different personalities that he has. The owner of the boy is Jayden, but for the past couple days his personality Luke has been present. How can i explain to my co- workers that he isn’t playing around and that they need to take this seriously?
you could have them have a look at these articles:
http://blog.donnawilliams.net/2012/02/25/autism-and-dissociation/
http://blog.donnawilliams.net/2011/01/20/the-spectrum-of-dissociative-disorders/
even print copies and have them take a copy home for a read and agree to a meeting over coffee to discuss what they’ve read and consider this boy’s issues in that context.
what’s important for the boy is to help him to
a) externally map out these 5 so others can understand who each is, how each sees their world, their skills, motivations, fears etc… look at Mind Maps as a tool for this, but others may use representational objects, sand box play etc
b) explore how each of the 5 sees the rest of his team… do they even know they are part of a team within him…. just because the Core knows of THEM, doesn’t mean they know of each other…. but from this you’ll know the conflicts and alliances
c) from there its a matter of ‘family counselling’ with his team members… helping compartmentalised parts of the whole (alters) to form siblingships, alliances, this will progressively have a chance to lead to blending which is part of the road toward progressive integration.
d) always strengthening the Core self, including yoga for kids… something that helps him practice NOT dissociating so the Core can stay presenting if not at least co-conscious… then the others will remain within him but he won’t be constantly splitting
e) some low key counselling about multiplicity and how some people have more of this than others, that its natural to keep different parts of oneself in different ‘rooms’ in ones own world but all the rooms should have doors, that parts inside need to be free to get to know each other and co-operation in some shared directions.
if you need a mentor through any of this or someone to have a meeting with your co-workers to discuss these processes etc, I do consumer consultant work which is affordable and via skype so we can arrange a interactive skype meeting across time zones to suit your staff. Here’s info:
http://www.donnawilliams.net/lectures.0.html
http://www.donnawilliams.net/dissociativedisorders.0.html
warmly,
Donna
Thanks a lot, but I must say that his personality Luke has been present for the past 3 days…the others only come when something goes array and they are only present for a split second. So when this happens I don’t know who’s who (with the exception of Luke).
the main problem of course is that when he splits he fails to build the coping skills of enduring pain/confusion/etc so this reinforces the splitting process until its so automatic he reduces his chances of moving forward with an integrated identity… being multiple leads to strengths as alters each develop their own skills set, but in situations requiring one to function as a whole, multiples later commonly struggle if not fail to cope at all.